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Written by Anthony Deutsch and Jan Lopartka
STERNBERG, Czech Republic (Reuters) – In the eastern Czech Republic, hundreds of Czechs and several Ukrainians are working around the clock to turn a complex of buildings dating back to World War II into a base for supplying weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. We are working on changing it to .
The initiative is part of a European effort to provide Kyiv with weapons to repel Russian forces as U.S. military aid, the backbone of international aid, stalls.
Dutch military commander General Onno Eichelsheim visited the Sternberg facility owned by Czech private arms manufacturer Excalibur Army and outlined the urgency of the situation as Kiev’s losses mount in eastern and southern Ukraine. .
“We have to speed up. We have to deliver more,” he told Reuters during a recent visit to see self-propelled howitzers and modified Russian tanks being sent into combat. And we have to do it faster.”
Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s most pressing need is for artillery shells, but both sides are using heavy artillery fire to maintain nearly fixed trenched positions along a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front. Because of this, there is a shortage of shells.
In March 2023, the European Union launched an effort to deliver 1 million shells to Ukraine within 12 months, as it, along with other Western allies, wants to contain Russia’s advance and repel its increasingly assertive rival.
A year later, just over half of that number was shipped, officials said, due to a lack of production capacity and a long-term lack of orders.
“Clearing House”
The Czech government has played a central role in raising funds among partners and finalizing agreements with the Czech defense industry.
Col. Simon Ouda, head of the Netherlands’ Ukraine counterforce, also said the Netherlands had been “very busy in several countries for several months” to make up for the shortage of shells.
“The first batch should be ready within four months, but this is a very conservative calculation. The second batch can definitely be delivered in the second half of this year,” Wouda said, detailing the supply schedule for the first time. Stated.
He said efforts were underway to secure an additional contract with Excalibur Army, part of the private Czechoslovakia Group (CSG), to purchase 155mm ammunition to fit the Dutch-supplied artillery. .
The Czechoslovakia Group acts as a manufacturer and clearing house for munitions, produces air defense systems and vehicles, and procures tanks, artillery, and shells from around the world and retrofits them for Ukraine.
Western European countries and other allies are paying for much of the supplies. Ukraine also purchases military equipment and ammunition directly from its partners.
The Netherlands is working with the Czech Republic to secure as many 155mm shells as possible for Ukraine.
Wouda wants to ensure a steady supply of ammunition as part of a security agreement detailed by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The Netherlands and other countries will finance around 800,000 shells to be procured through the Czech Republic.
Soaring ammunition prices
Wouda told Reuters that coalition members funding short-term purchases include Britain, Canada, Denmark, the Czech Republic and the United States.
“Collectively, we are really finding opportunities around the world to find ammunition in other places outside of Europe,” he said, declining to identify those locations.
In the two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, much of the ammunition that Ukraine has procured from abroad has been sourced from U.S. stocks.
Western producers have ramped up production to meet an unexpected surge in demand, with the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, predicting annual shell production across the bloc will reach 1.4 million by the end of 2024. I predict that will happen. A year ago, it was about 500,000 pieces.
For every shell that Ukraine fires along the front, Russia fires five or six, according to officials and defense analysts. This imbalance limits Ukraine’s ability to deter Russian aggression and support the movement of its own troops.
Although Russia is increasing its weapons production and can maintain a much higher rate of fire than Ukraine, Western experts say Russia also faces certain constraints and is relying on North Korea to boost ammunition supplies. It says that there are.
According to the Financial Times, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told EU foreign ministers last week that Ukraine needs 2.5 million shells this year, suggesting that the daily requirement is 7,000. However, the EU has only sent 400,000 shots.
Ammunition supplies to Ukraine have been disrupted by politics, the US Congress supports a $60 billion military aid package, and European countries are divided over the use of EU funds to buy military supplies outside the region.
According to a senior Czech official, there are approximately 2 million rounds of large-caliber ammunition on the world market.
Demand from the war in Ukraine has pushed prices up from an initial price of $700 to $1,200 to $2,800 to $3,200 per round, two people familiar with the market said.
assignment
Ammunition supplies to Kiev need to be stepped up to have any chance of turning the tide of the war, analysts Franz Stefan Gadi and Michael Koffman wrote in a February research paper for the International Institute for Strategic Studies. said.
“The challenge for donor countries is to significantly increase the production of artillery shells and air defense interceptor missiles,” he said.
“Kiev needs about 75,000 to 90,000 shells per month to sustain the war defensively, and more than twice that amount to 200,000 to 250,000 for a major attack.”
There is debate within the EU about where to procure ammunition.
The Netherlands has earmarked 250 million euros ($271 million) for ammunition purchases for Kiev, including non-European stocks through the Czech defense industry, and has given its allies an ongoing agreement with the Czech government. We asked for contributions to the plan.
A senior Czech official said donor countries could choose from a list of offers for different types of products and origins, with several Czech companies acting as “clearing houses”.
European ammunition has been sold out for two years, prompting officials to question why they were reluctant to sell beyond the domestic market.
France and Germany are also considering joining the initiative. French President Emmanuel Macron endorsed the plan during his Tuesday visit to Prague, paving the way for the use of European funds, but did not say what contribution Paris would make to it.
France also met with the foreign and defense ministers of Ukraine’s main allies and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Thursday, with the aim of presenting a “united front” and putting together concrete proposals to boost support for Kiev. The Secretary-General was invited to join the video call.
The invitation states that the meeting will consider ways to speed up the supply and production of artillery ammunition.
Not just ammunition
Ukraine’s needs go beyond artillery ammunition. Russia wants to strengthen its air defenses and needs more hardware on the front lines to match Russia’s superior resources. Countries that have supplied Ukraine so far include South Korea and Turkey.
Later this year, U.S. F-16 fighter jets are scheduled to be delivered to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands. The Dutch are also part of a group that provides advanced drones that can strike deep into Russian-held territory.
The Netherlands has already received 100 mounted anti-aircraft guns and 45 refurbished T-72 tanks for Ukraine from Excalibur forces, 105 of which were funded by the United States and Denmark.
The company has ordered nine modern howitzer systems. Another Czech supplier, radar technology company ERA, is delivering four long-range surveillance systems, also donated by the Netherlands.
Pavel Doshko, business development director for CSG’s Defense Land Systems, said hundreds of workers have been added to increase production at the Sternberg plant.
“Working with our Dutch partners and other partners in NATO, we are now able to supply Ukraine with significantly more supplies that it desperately needs for its defense,” he said in an interview.
“We’re doing everything we can to supply the best possible product as quickly as possible,” he said, standing near a construction site where a cement floor was recently poured and a steel frame erected. Told.
(1 dollar = 0.9211 euro)
(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch and Jan Lopartka; Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Brussels; Mike Stone, Aram Roston and Patricia Zengel in Washington; John Irish in Paris; Andreas Linke in Berlin; Editing by Mike・Colette White and Timothy Heritage)
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